Google Adwords Third Party Review Extensions

Word of Mouth Hits the Search Listings

Word of mouth advertising is nothing new. For years, businesses have thrived thanks to the recommendations of other satisfied customers. People tell their friends about the great service they have received, people tell their family about the great service they have received, in some cases people even tell others they barely know. There’s one thing hearing about how good a business is from the business owner or its marketing department, of course they’re going to say that – but it completely changes the game when you hear how good a business is from a satisfied customer or someone completely separate from the business. Now with one of the latest updates to AdWords, Google allows you to use these glowing recommendations in your paid-for advertising. Google first announced Review Extensions in June and now it has been rolled out to all AdWords accounts.

Review Extensions allows you to use richer information in your PPC advertising in the form of positive comments about your business from customers and reputable third parties. Long have advertisers used positive customer comments, reviews and such like in other types of advertising, all it takes is a quick through a local newspaper to find such an example, but now Google has brought this capability to AdWords.

With Review Extensions you will be able to display all kinds of accolades from reputable third parties in your search ads – right where your customers can see them. Google recommends setting one Review Extension at the campaign level for greater flexibility and exposure. You are able to submit more than one review but only the first approved review will be displayed. Reviews can also either be a direct quote or a summary of a key point from a review.

The key thing about Third Party Extensions though, is that the reviews are of high quality. Reviews must come from a reputable 3rd party source and must comply with standard AdWords policies. Reviews should focus on your business as a whole, as opposed to a review about a specific product or service, this again gives you greater flexibility and ensures the reviews are relevant for all of your ads. It is also your responsibility to ensure you have permission to use the review.

(Image Credit: Google)

You can use a direct quote or a summary of a key points from a review, as shown above.

You should see the Review Extensions option under the Ad extensions tab in your account within the next few days. For Google policies surrounding Review Extensions Please Click Here